PURPOSE and performance, design and execution-rarely correspond and bear witness for each other with so much felicity as in this beautiful and unpretending little volume. It was prepared, the author informs us, without originally any thought of publication; and it bears, throughout, traces which prove that it was composed only in favourable moments, when the author was drawn to his task by the attraction of love-not driven to it by the stern compulsion of ungrateful labour.

"The series of Pastoral Annals' here presented to the public, was commenced at an early period of the author's professional life-primarily under the impression, that a labour of such a nature might tend to exercise him in habits of composition of a familiar kind, as a prelude to more sustained and serious effort; subsequently, when the number of facts recorded, had increased to a considerable amount, he conceived the idea that at some undefined period they might interest or amuse his own or his friends' leisure hours-and so he persevered."

We thank the author for his perseverence, and trust that the extracts we subjoin will satisfy the reader that we have reason to be grateful. Take the following as an example of scenic description-the time near sunset, the evening serene:

"Far below-for the elevation to which I had attained was about five hundred feet above the level of the champaign country-an extensive plain spread itself almost as far as the eye could reach. Winding through woodlands and downs, and by many a hamlet and village, with church and tower and spire, and lavish of passing graces on the few seats of our thinly-sown gentry along which it flowed, a river white as silver pursued its way, till lost in an immense fake. That again, vast as a sea, was terminated by a range of not very lofty mountains, on whose summits rested the gathering clouds of night. The evening, the silence-for if any, none but

*

distant sounds reached my ear, and between the effect of distant sounds upon the mind, and perfect stillness, there is an affinity which I have often remarked, without finding a satisfactory solution; -the glorious prospect before melovely, soft, and placid also the undefinable sentiment, that though in my native land, I yet was encompassed by a people as distinct from myself as the inhabitants of China, or Lapland ;-the occasion on which I came ;-the struggle which my own ancestors had made, and millions likewise of their fellow-men, to burst the bonds of Romish thraldom;the progress of truth throughout the world-its partial withdrawal, its varied fortunes-now flickering as if unable to maintain a steady flame-now blazing as a meteor, and, alas! as quickly expiring; and at length prophecy, like some great musical composer ere the piece concludes, drawing together all the scattered melodies, and in one grand harmonious peal uniting each simplest and each loftiest tone. So (thought I) shall that sure word' vindicate the providence of God, and stamp the impress of his sovereignty, and the triumph of insulted truth, on the closing scene of this earth's dispensation."

The following passage of mingled narrative and description possesses a moral interest of no ordinary character. The situation is one of breathless suspense, and all the accessaries of nature the accidents of light and shade, silence, solitude, motion, repose -all things of sight and sound are made subordinate to the effect to be produced; and the whole scene is represented, in language most happily selected, and in which the absence of exaggeration is felt as a distinguishing and positive characteristic. such language objects are seen by the light, and in the atmosphere, in which they appear to best advantage. The writer is residing in a solitary mansion, in a district where Protestants are few, and at a season of much political disquiet.

In

"The night was, as I have said, bright moonlight-bright indeed in an

unusual degree;—and well was the lovely scene on which they fell, worthy the placid beams of our softly-shining satellite. Distant about half a mile from the house in which I lived, lay an immense lake, stretching far away to the southward, the extreme limit being lost in a faintly-coloured haze. Its breadth, which may have been about four miles, was distinctly traceable; low mountains of brown heathy pasturage, whose height was considerably magnified by the shadows thrown on the water from a few small islands, bounded it on either side. The shape of the shore or surrounding highlands was not peculiarly striking, and only bold in one or two spots; but there was an expanse of water and of land, and when these are blended in the same view, it cannot be otherwise than pleasing; and besides, at the time I write of it was between. one and two in the morning, and a bright moon shone.

"After gazing for some minutes with intense interest upon the enchanting spectacle, I raised the window with the utmost caution, so that I might not occasion any noise, and stood a little retired, to avoid the possibility of being observed. Yet what eyes were likely to behold me, unless those of the glorious planet which shed its silvery rays in mild profusion around? or perhaps, too, the more distant prying of some calmly conscious star?'

"For a while I scanned the objects before me with keen and anxious scrutiny, and listened as if I was all ear. But not a sound reached me-no, not a rustling shrub or blade demonstrated the theory of universal motion, or spoke the voice of nature through any of her countless organs.

"To me it seemed so perfect was the stillness as if the sense of hearing were unnecessary to complete the happiness of man. The vigilance of the watchman soon gave place to a species of meditation scarcely to be called contemplative. That in its turn was fast passing into a state of dreamy reverie, to which bed and a closed casement would have offered a fitting and acceptable hospitality, when my musings were disturbed by a halfuttered growl from my four-footed companion. He had indeed disdained to use more feet than his master during the period I have described.

With paws

resting upon the window-seat, and hind feet firmly set on the floor, the wakeful creature surveyed the scene. Whether he partook of my reflections, or that his mind was occupied by some more original sentiments, I am unable to affirm with the certitude becoming a narrator of facts, and therefore forbear to pledge

my truth to what I cannot maintain. This, however, I declare, that the halfgrowl above mentioned startled me-as valiant soldiers have assured me the preluding gun has roused them-from, it might be, a profound sleep, to the strife and danger of a bloody battle. Off to the rear, like the women and baggage of the army, went all my romance, accompanied by sundry detachments of the sublime and beautiful,'who, somewhat like our Braves Belges' at Waterloo, acted on that wisest of principles, the sauve qui peut,' before a shot was fired. These all being placed in safety, I bent my manlier energies towards the field. Still, though straining every faculty, I saw nothing, and heard nothing. I almost envied the calm repose of nature. A moment more, and my little dog growled again. The shock to my nerves was less powerful, but more convincing than before. No doubt now remained in my mind, that the whole world was not all asleep. I looked, and listened with palpitating eagerness for about a minute, when I perceived several human figures crossing my lawn, between my house and the lake, at about four hundred yards distance. They carried arms upon their shoulders-whether spades, or pikes, or muskets, I could not determine; but their glancing in the moonbeams proved them to be metal. They marched in order, as well as I could distinguish, two and two, preserving the strictest silence; in number probably about thirty.

"The party, which was now full in view had emerged from the shadow of a hill; -whence they had come, or whither going, I could not tell. Their movement was in a parallel direction to the parsonage, and somewhat inclining towards the lake. It was therefore to be inferred that, if at all, I was not their first or immediate object. But notwithstanding this reprieve, I confess myself totally incapable of describing the feelings with which I surveyed this formidable band. It is needless to dwell on the humility and confidence with which I cast myself on Him who is the strength of our head in the day of battle, or how affecting were the emotions which crowded round my heart, as my distant home with all its loved associations rose fondly in my thoughts. Alone, and without prospect of succour, though not indisposed to use to the very utmost the slender means of defence which I possessed, I still felt painfully, almost despairingly, conscious of their total insufficiency to accomplish that object.

"It might be, and circumstances proved it so, that there was no present danger; but neither was there any self-deception

as to the fact. The body of men I looked on was no phantom of a distempered brain, peopling the wild heath with vi sionary forms, but a real array of peasants, stark and resolute-men sworn to obey a leader they had never seen, and with whose name or abode they were unacquainted-men who, in blind obedience to a mysterious command, had left house, and fire, and bed, to assemble in arms beneath the glimpses of the midnight moon-who had voluntarily subjected themselves to the severities of military discipline and the perils consequent on violated laws;-men, in fine, who, ere they engaged in these dark enterprises, pledged their souls, by all the horrid rites which ever bound Christian or heathen in hellish confederacy, to wreak the unsated, the unsatiable vengeance of long centuries upon the doomed head of every Protestant they might be directed to destroy."

Our author, although thus sensible of misery and danger occasioned by religious discord, and by the pestilent conspiracy which it nurtures, is capable of discerning the presence of a generous spirit wherever it is to be found, in antagonist no less than in friend. The following incident is strikingly characteristic, and the style in which it is described is worthy of its subject. The priest of whom our author writes had been at fierce feud with him, endeavouring to withdraw Roman Catholic children from scriptural schools, a project in which the boldness and ready wit of the author successfully resisted him. After this defeat, followed incidents thus narrated:

"We met, after the lapse of a month or two, in the crowded fair of the village; or I should rather say, that he espied me among the multitude, and instantly approached me. He saluted me courteously enough, but with a loudness of tone and an emphatic pronunciation of my name quite unusual and needless. A moment longer brought him in medias res.' 'So, sir,' said he, you keep my children at your d Bible school, contrary to my wish.' We were both on horseback, and therefore conspicuous objects. The voice of the priest had attracted an immense number of the country people to hear our conference, and general appearances left no doubt upon my mind that his design was to intimidate me, if not worse. My spirit providentially rose against such

an endeavour; and I replied I am proud of the name you give to my school, and ashamed that you should have attached an impious blasphemy to your description of it. It is a Bible school, and will, I trust, be called the blessed Bible school before long.'-'I can't abide the Bible' was the rejoinder, as before, of this holy teacher-a sentiment of which I might have supposed him somewhat enamoured, for he uttered it in both languages. Will you confess that,' said I, at the bar of Christ's judgment-seat, you his minister on earth?' I also translating my reply into the best Irish I was master of. This compliance with the national affections gratified the by-standers (nine out of ten of whom were aborigines) beyond all description. My antagonist saw the advantage which I had gained, and in an abrupt manner of triumph exclaimed - Did you hear the news this morning? As he spoke, he turned towards the crowd with a singular leer of mutual intelligence. No,' said I.—“ The people have taken Cashel, and they are coming this way, tearing all before them.' The multitude waved backwards and forwards at this intelligence, as if rocked by a single hand, and every eye was fixed upon me. While I paused --for pause I did, partly from the manifest intention of my wicked opponent, and partly because the actual state of the county of Tipperary rendered the alleged fact not altogether incredible; and while, in deference to the truth of history, I am compelled to surmise that my pulse may have been slightly accelerated, the priest reiterated—' Ay, they're coming sure enough, tearing all before them what will become of us here?' and looking at me as if he would read my soul, What will become of the Bible, too?' Little did that dark man know the magic, or, had I not more properly said, the sacred efficacy of the phrase he had just pronounced. The word Bible dispersed from my mind every feeling but that of courage. don't believe a word of your news, father,' said I, at the topmost pitch of my voice- not a word. If the rebels had attacked Cashel, and they dare not do so, the king's troops are as able to beat them now, as they were when they had the French to back them at the battle of Colooney, and you can tell how that day went, Father' Now that was indeed a desperate venture on my part, for Father aforesaid bore on his cheek the mark of a sabre cut which a dragoon inflicted upon his sanctified countenance during that memorable engagement. I could scarcely expect that he would rejoice much in being re

I

Father

minded of a circumstance of which he was so little proud, that he fled to America till the general amnesty rendered his return to his native Connaught secure. His exploits against the Sassenach' were reputed to have been vigorous as well as various during the rebellion, and were only in part repaid by a scar, and a writ of outlawry which lasted for nearly three years. Happily was in the main a kindhearted man; had he been otherwise, I really believe not all the Gaelic that ever issued from the lips of the truest Milesian would have prolonged my life for two minutes. The crowd murmured loudly, and were clearly disposed to mischief. The father perceived it, and waving his hand, said in Irish, 'There's good blood in that gentleman-long life to him!' This appeased the people; and Father addressing me with exceeding cordiality, said, I'll never have a quarrel with you, except it be which of us shall be most friendly one to the other; adding, in an under tone, 'You are too venturesome for this country, and yet it is what will make the people love you; and they shall love you.' He then rode slowly away."

The assurance given in this passage, is corroborated by the style and structure of the work. The diction is throughout highly finished, and the epithets frequently so well chosen, that they describe the object to which they are applied with an accuracy scarcely inferior to that of proper names. The author scarcely ever fails to choose the happiest word, or to present his subject, whether it be a thought or an object in external nature, otherwise than under the aspect in which it can be seen to the best advantage. Such it would be natural to expect the style of an accomplished scholar should be, when writing under circumstances so favourable as those in which the Pastoral Annals were composed. The preface promises, as it were, a series of Cabinet Pictures, highly and delicately finished, and the reader of the Annals will not be disappointed.

But it would be foul wrong to this interesting volume, were we to confine our observations to its style. It is rich in generous sentiments, wise reflections on the condition of Irish society, and all through characterised by a delicate tact of conscience which

diffuses over the work a very unusual charm. There are two classes of bold men in the world-one consisting of

those who dare justify what they dare do; the other of those who invert this ordinary maxim, and who will not persist in the doing of any thing but that which they can justify. If an

individual of one of these classes be accused, his first thought is, how he may retort on his assailant; there will be time enough he thinks to discover and repair the wrong he may have done, but his first thought is, how to meet the wrong (for so he accounts the accusation) done him. The other class is composed of persons who, if they do not suspect, severely search themselves, the moment that another accuses them. It is of no moment that the charge may be unfairly or indecorously urged, that it may have little support from evidence, that its author may be unworthy. Sufficient for the man of sensitive conscience that a charge has been made; he instantly acts the part of inquisitor upon himself to ascertain if in his feelings or his conduct, he can have afforded grounds for the accusation. The presence of this fine spirit gives a very peculiar interest to the Pastoral Annals.

The profession to which the author has originally been dedicated appears to have been that of the law. The reasons which effected a change in his intentions are given in the introduction; where also he gives a picture of the state of the church in the neighbourhood where it came under his observation, by which he was long and seriously troubled.

"Yet the clergy were for the most part well-educated men, and of irreproachable moral conduct; but they were very cold, and dead, and formal. The consequences were as might be expected; on every side conventicles sprang up. Up rose the Methodist, and the Baptist of each degree, and the Unitarian, and Millennarian, and all the

ists,' and 'ites,' and arians,' which religion run mad could picture in her darkest mood.' I heard, and knew, many of these edifices were mere commercial speculations; still it was clear, that a movement' of some kind or other must have preceded, and suggested them. Subsequent observation has demonstrated the truth of this conclusion in most human matters, and perhaps few better guides of conduct can be had recourse to than it affords. Of the tenets promulgated in many of these tabernacles I preserve a vivid re.